USING THE POWER OF HABIT TO
TRANSFORM YOUR ADVISING
Hollie Heintz, M.S., Ed. – Academic Advisor
Jenni Kotowski, M.A.– Assistant Director for Admissions
Division of General Studies
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INTRODUCTIONS
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GOALS OF THIS PROGRAM
 Demonstrate one very successful method to change any habit
 Introduce The Habit Loop
 Discuss benefits of using “Habit Looping” both personally and professionally
 Provide examples of ways you can use this in your own professional development
and/or when working with students
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THE POWER OF HABIT
BY CHARLES DUHIGG
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THE SCIENCE
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THE HABIT LOOP
 Cue – a trigger that tells your brain
to go into automatic mode and
which habit to use
 Routine – can be physical or
mental or emotional
 Reward – helps your brain figure
out if this particular loop is worth
remembering for the future
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CHANGING A HABIT
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THE POWER OF HABIT
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THE FRAMEWORK
 Identify the routine
 Experiment with rewards
 Isolate the cue
 Have a plan
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STEP 1 – IDENTIFY THE ROUTINE
 This is the behavior you want to change
 Examples –
 Eating a cookie everyday at 3pm
 Reading email instead of doing work
 Having too many adult beverages when you watch sports
 Biting your nails when you are stressed
 Swearing
 Insert your item here _______________
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STEP 2 – EXPERIMENT THE REWARDS
 Rewards are powerful because they satisfy cravings.
 To figure out which craving are driving particular habits, it’s useful to experiment with
different rewards.
 Choosing what to do instead of (your routine here) isn’t important. The point is to test
different hypotheses to determine which craving is driving your routine.
 By experimenting with different rewards, you can isolate what you are actually
craving, which is essential in redesigning the habit.
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STEP 3 – ISOLATE THE CUE
Can be difficult to identify
the cues that trigger our
habits because there is too
much information
bombarding us as
behaviors unfold.
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STEP 3 – ISOLATE THE CUE
 Experiments have shown that almost all habitual cues fit into one of five
categories:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Location
Time
Emotional state
Other people
Immediately preceding action
 So when trying to determine a cue – write down these five things the
moment the urge hits to help you determine the trigger.
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STEP 4 – HAVE A PLAN
 A habit is a choice that we deliberately make at some point, and then
stop thinking about, but continue doing, often every day.
 A habit is a formula our brain automatically follows:
 When I see a CUE,
 I will do ROUTINE
 In order to get a REWARD
 To re-engineer that formula, we need to begin making choices again.
The best way to do that is to have a plan.
 Plans are known within psychology as “implementation intentions.”
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HOW DO WE USE THIS IDEA WHEN
WORKING WITH STUDENTS?
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LET’S PRACTICE
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WHAT DID YOU LEARN?
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POWER OF HABIT AT WORK –
JENNI’S STORY
 From January 2012 – July 2013 lost 108
pounds
 Dropped 7 dress sizes
 Have run 5 half-marathons
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RESOURCES PAGE
 http://personalsuccesstoday.com/the-habit-change-worksheet/
 http://duhigg-site.s3.amazonaws.com/wpcontent/uploads/2012/04/How-to-Change-a-Habit.jpg
 http://charlesduhigg.com/
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